
European Union says it will investigate X on illegal and harmful content about Israel and Palestine conflict.
Industry chief, Thierry Breton also reprimanded TikTok and Meta for not doing enough to tackle the spread of disinformation about the conflict.
In a letter to TikTok, EU alleged that the platform was being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation, pointing out that it has also put pressure on TikTok and Meta to remove illegal and harmful content from their platforms in order to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The EU said TikTok and Meta have an obligation to protect their users (most of whom are children and teenagers) from violent content depicting hostage taking and other graphic videos which are reportedly widely circulating on the two platforms without appropriate safeguards.
The DSA, which entered into force in November last year, forces very large online platforms and search engines to do more to tackle illegal content and risks to public security as well as protect their services against manipulative techniques.
Responding, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said on Thursday that the platform had removed accounts suspected to be fuelling the Israel and Palestine conflict and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since the attack.
The Reuters reports that X, TikTok and Meta have seen a surge of false content about the Israel and Hamas conflict, with disinformation appearing to be most prevalent.